Chapter 59: The Face in the Dark
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The figure stepped into the blue glow, revealing eyes like shards of broken glass and a smile too cruel to be human.
Kael's breath caught. Lyra's heart pounded.
"You," Kael whispered.
"You were supposed to be gone."
The figure's laugh was cold and hollow.
"Gone? No, Kael. I was always here. Watching. Waiting. Feeding."
Lyra's mother or was she? stepped forward, but this was different.
A twisted echo, a shadow born of betrayal and bitterness.
"I am the price Whisperwood refused to pay.
The sacrifice left behind.
The first lie that never died."
Oran's face darkened.
"This is the true curse the one we hid from the world.
And now it claims what we tried to protect."
Kael moved to stand in front of Lyra.
"We'll end this. Tonight."
As the chamber walls began to close in, the figure's voice whispered,
"To break the curse, blood must be spilled.
But whose blood will it be?"